Roe returns to N.Z. marathons

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 28

Roe returns to N.Z. marathons

PA Wellington One of New Zealand’s top long distance runners, Allison Roe, will return to competitive marathons in New Zealand next week after an eight' year absence. Roe is expected to start as one of the favourites to win the $3OOO prize for the fastest woman runner in the 1988 Humes Hamilton Marathon on February 7. Roe has not run in a New Zealand marathon for eight years and is treating the Hamilton event as part of her build up for the New Zealand cross country championships in Auckland at the end of February and the London marathon in April. Roe said she would not be looking to the Hamilton event to better the Olympic qualifying time of 2 hours and 32 minutes. "I hope to turn in a time for Hamilton of about 2 hours 38 minutes as part of my build-up for the Seoul Olympics in August. I will be looking to achieve the Olympic qualifying time of 2 hours 32 minutes at the London marathon in April. “I don’t want to do anything that is too hard on my body so that I have plenty of time to recover for the New Zealand cross country championships three weeks after Hamilton.” Roe was out of the international long distance circuit for two years in 1984 and 1985 after hamstring surgery but she said she was pleased with her recovery and recent

return to form. “The hardest thing I have ever done is to get back into the world class athletics after a two year enforced break but I am happy with the progress I have made.” Last year, Roe recorded two personal best times, both in Japan, in a 10 mile event she returned a personal best time of 54 minutes, the fourth fastest in the world, and in a half marathon she returned a time of 73 minutes. In two other international marathons last year, Roe was sixth (Tokyo) and fifth (San Francisco). Her major achievement in international long distance running was in New York in 1981 when she set the fastest time in the world for a woman marathon runner. In the same year she won the Boston marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world. In 1981, Roe won the Seoul marathon, the last international event she ran before being forced out of the sport by a hamstring injury. The event carries prize money worth more than $30,000 and has attracted some top international runners, including Filbert Bayi of Tanzania and Ric Sayre of the United States. Bayi, aged 34, a former 1500 metres world record holder who switched to marathon running two years ago, has a personal best marathon time of 2:16.16 from his fourth placing in the Honolulu marathon in 1986.